we're down with design – This Is Our Story
It's much more than that. It's a promise made by two brothers to put their hearts and souls into their creativity whilst making a change along the way.
The revolution has only just begun...
The name or phrase 'down with design' was coined during the period in which Gareth graduated from University & sought to gain employment in the design industry. Opportunities were scarce as was the choice of available domain names to create a portfolio website. During this frustrating time, 'down with design' was the ideal mantra, and worked as a great metaphor for Gareth's feelings towards design. He was passionate about the profession yet at the same time considered alternative career paths, mainly due to the lack of available jobs. His new identity began to get him noticed.
Gareth returned to the DWD moniker in 2008 having spent two years working as a Graphic Designer for a small design company based in Warwickshire. Today, the name takes on another level of symbolism, as it reflects Gareth's and now also Dan's revolutionary way of thinking & creativity.
Gareth made the daring leap into freelance in 2009 having grown restricted by the corporate environment. By studying for a degree that covered a wide spectrum of design disciplines, he felt it was time to decide the area in which he wanted to specialise. Logo design & brand identity was the obvious choice as they were the projects he relished most, as logo design is the most challenging and rewarding. To celebrate this new direction, he chose to adopt the word 'logo' through the Adopt A Word charity scheme.
We don't normally believe in design awards, as they seem to be losing their meaning. However, we are proud that in 2010 a logo designed for Lions & Lambs Media Group LLC received recognition from WOLDA (Worldwide Logo Design Annual). This meant a lot, as the project was perhaps the most challenging to date, so to know that we completely nailed the brief is more than rewarding.
At the end of 2010, Gareth was requested to write a logo design tutorial for one of the worlds biggest design-related publications, Computer Arts Magazine.
This was considered a huge honour as Gareth had spent his whole student education buying the magazine every month, so to be included was the realisation of a long-term ambition.
Having gained recognition for blog posts that challenged the common opinion, international publisher, Wiley, approached Gareth to write a book completely dedicated to every aspect of logo design. The book brought together the work of 90 designers from all four corners of the globe, offering case studies, tutorials and working examples of great logos. Smashing Logo Design remains as the first and only scripture thus far to be officially released as a product of the revolution.
Up until mid October 2011, down with design had been the sole freelance identity of Gareth. With web design project requests becoming more frequent he decided to enlist Dan's creative web design & development services to help expand the service range on offer. Creativity runs in the family, and younger sister Sophie is expected to join the fold in the next few years, as she is a phenomenal artist.
At the beginning of 2011, Gareth began working on an identity project for a new brand created by international recording artist Taio Cruz. The first stage of the brand, RXTR, manufactured a limited edition of watches personally designed by Taio. This is perhaps our biggest achievement to date and to own a watch with a logo that Gareth designed is definitely our proudest. You can help to write the next chapter… Join the revolution.
In April 2012, after months of planning, deliberation and consideration we finally moved into our new headquarters in Wolverhampton. We're only a stone's throw away from the city centre, the Molineux and the train station so if you ever happen to be in Wolves feel free to pop in & say hello.
